Sponcil-Cannon take the “spicy” road into the semifinals

To take a look at the women’s semifinals of this weekend’s AVP Atlanta Gold Series is to take a look at, on the surface, what appears to be a complete and total chalk walk. All four of the top seeds — Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon — have made it through to Sunday’s semis.

But the first blush of the bracket is, as many initial impressions are, quite misleading. While Cheng and Hughes, and Nuss and Kloth, have wasted not a single set in reaching the semifinals with three straight sweeps each, such is not the case for Sponcil and Cannon.

Oh, no.

There are long roads. And then there is the road taken by Sponcil and Cannon.

They were very nearly out of the tournament on Friday — Friday! Such a result has happened just once in Sponcil’s AVP career, in Manhattan Beach of 2018 with Lauren Fendrick. A first-round loss to thirteenth-seeded Brook Bauer and Katie Horton (18-21, 14-21) sentenced them to the unenviable grind of the contender’s bracket, in the hottest, most humid tournament of the year, no less. To make it to the weekend would require a three-set win over Larissa Maestrini and Lili Maestrini (21-16, 15-21, 15-9).

It easily could have come unraveled from there.

The past two months has not been the smoothest stretch for Sponcil and Cannon. After a silver medal at the Ostrava Elite16 in early June, they had won just two of nine matches since. Meanwhile, they’ve been passed in the Olympic and entry point rankings by Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles. Given that stretch and the rocky start to the tournament, Atlanta very well could have extended the rut.

But then Saturday arrived, and the new day brought a renewed version of Sponcil and Cannon, the one with two Beach Pro Tour medals and a pair of AVP semifinals this season. Three straight teams bowed out at the hands of Sponcil and Cannon, all by some version of the same score: Deahna Kraft and Zana Muno (21-18, 21-15), Megan Kraft and Emily Stockman (21-15, 21-18), and Bauer and Horton (21-15, 21-18). By the end of Saturday, Cannon was leading the tournament in hitting percentage (.546) and Sponcil was right behind her at No. 2 (.532).

“You can quote me saying Atlanta is hot,” Cannon said, laughing.

If anyone should know, it’s Sponcil. She’s navigated this exact type of…